


Little Tragedy

by Brachylagus_fandom



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, ToT: Chocolate Box
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 22:50:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8178788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/pseuds/Brachylagus_fandom
Summary: Ty Lee returns to the Fire Nation. Old ghosts don't stay dead.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [failsafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



> In case you couldn't tell by the tags and summary, this is pretty dark.

The Fire Palace is... unwelcoming, to say the least. The walls loom over everyone, a monument to the Fire Nation's power and something that makes the little girl in Ty Lee want to run. She went through these gates willingly at first, but the walk seems to get a little bit harder every time. Still, the paint on her face keeps anyone from seeing her blanch to nearly white and the girls around her detract from the memories that permeate every stone of this place.

There is the courtyard that she had played in almost every day. There is the railing she fell off of when they were six; Azula had promised to catch her, but she still landed on her head. There is the turtleduck she had tried to keep as a pet when she was seven, now all grown up with turtleducklings of her own. There is the discolored spot of brick Azula had burned in a fit of rage when Ty Lee showed off acrobatics she couldn't begin to grasp. There is the patch of firelilies she once used to make flower crowns for Azula (who had forced it onto Zuko) and Mai. There is the tree that still looks like it was missing branches from that time-

Zuko greets them genially, glad for the extra protection. The next three months are going to be trying, and he needs all the help he can get. Sokka and Suki share not-so-subtle smiles across the courtyard and disappear to talk the instant they were released. A little girl in Earth Kingdom colors, Toph if she remembers Suki's story right, follows Ty Lee up to the room set aside as hers. It wasn't anywhere near Azula's old quarters, thankfully.

_\- Poison kisses and sweet lies, pain and blood and fire, scratches down my thighs and burns up my back that never seem to fade, "don't you like it, little light? Didn't you want this?" -_

"Why did you do it?" Toph asks, and Ty Lee blinks as the world refocuses on a room not drenched in fear.

"Do what?" she asks back, and Toph rolls her eyes.

"Betray Azula. What else?" _Become consort. Run through these gates on that first day. Hunt you. I have made so many stupid choices, but betraying Azula wasn't one of them._

"Mai did it, and I loved Mai more than I feared Azula." There, something nice and vague and true.

"Feared?"

"Everyone feared Azula. Even her friends." _Falling, always falling… that railing wasn't unsteady when I walked on it before, but one of the joints melted and I fell three stories… The line broke, she broke it, and I fell on Zuko's flame fist… he burned me nearly to the bone by accident and was so sorry and it wasn't even his fault…_ "Especially her friends."


End file.
